Blind Wild Child

MOVIE REVIEW: When I first heard about Spike Jonze making an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's controversial ode to the wild child in all of us Where The Wild Things Are, I was very skeptical. How can anyone in Hollywood let alone Jonze could effectively create a live-action embodiment of such a perfectedly crafted tale that told countless children for the past four decades that someone out there understood their brutish side?

Turns out, I was right.

It's quite evident that Jonze was too occupied in using traditional filmmaking in creating his self-gratifying version of the children's book by putting more words in it than the 10 sentences that graced the 37-page classic. Whether it was by force in order to get the full support of Warner Bros. or by his own design, Jonze comes across as another ill-advised filmmaker that really doesn't know what he's doing.

By putting that much dialogue by his own adulterated interpretation of the book's genuine effect on children, Where The Wild Things Are loses that certain magic that the original work has provided all these years and became an embarassingly crude movie that can't even connect itself with either its adult or young audience.

Instead, we have something that makes Max, the boy in the book, and the creatures that tame and shelter his childhood angst as nothing more than lewd and obnoxious characters that rarely ever reflect their hardback roots.

What makes Sendak's book so special is that it leaves the story to the individual imagination of each child that turns its pages. That is something Jonze could never see.

If nothing else, Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are is the true example of Hollywood's inexplicable uncontrollable urge to modernize something that already works.

Where The Wild Things Are (2009) (Warner Bros). MPAA rating: PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language. Running Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes. Now Playing.

COMEDY FACTOR: C-

FUN FACTOR: D+

STORY: A
ORIGINALITY: F
ACTING: B
SCORE: B
MUSIC: B
STUPID LEVEL: 9/10
VERDICT: You're better off sticking to the book, PLEASE!